Unchained Melody
by Leafdiaries
Summary: To be killed or captured is her fate, until... Barahime X The Black Wolf This was going to be a one-shot, but I've added a couple of chapters. Readers can decide if there should be more. Thanks for R&R.
1. Unlikely Assassin

As she drew the bow slowly across the strings, and her fingers swept down the smooth neck, touching, letting go, holding fast, releasing, the mournful notes wrapped themselves around every breeze that drifted through the latticed window next to where she sat. With her eyes closed, lulled by the soft tones, she swayed fluidly with each movement of the bow across the ehru. Backward slid the bow, and her lungs filled with the rose-scented air, and forward it surged on her sorrowful sigh.

"Why have you come here?" she paused the music only long enough to ask the question, and then resumed her song.

No answer came.

"Have you come to kill me or capture me?" she asked, not bothering to interrupt the music this time. She knew there would be no answer.

"There's little difference to me," she said more to herself than to the specter in the shadows.

When she felt the cold fingers creep around her neck from behind her, she swallowed but continued to play. Her eyes flickered sadly toward the bright blue sky outside her window. She could see the sun warming the garden far below her window, and she tried to remember how its beams felt on her face. Had it ever really kissed her cheeks or had she simply imagined it? It had been so, so long.

The cold fingers tightened on her throat, constricting her breath, just as hers loosened on the ehru and her bow slipped, making the instrument whimper. Her eyes drifted closed, shutting out the untouchable sun.

Then, the cold fingers closed over her slender white hand where it rested silently on the ehru strings. Each icy finger guided one of hers over the strings, touching, letting go, holding fast, releasing. She glanced sidelong at the large, tanned hand that covered hers, directing her fingers from one mute note to another. She drew her bow, and the ehru moaned longingly. Long, thin, elegant fingers brushed over hers with the changing notes, the strings' vibration tingling where they touched each other.

Swept away by the lilting tones, she hardly noticed when her fingers moved on their own now, no longer guided by the gentle touch that drew a beautiful song from her to replace the sad one she always played.

So at peace, it hardly mattered to her that those fingers brushed her throat again. This was fine, she thought, as her body swayed languidly with the sweet song she played. This was like the sunshine. She wished for its beams to spirit her away in warmth, like the warmth of the hand on her throat, no longer cold and bloodless. The gentle fingers stroked up along her skin, tilting her chin skyward.

Hesitant, awkward lips trembled on hers before settling firmly over her mouth. Her song quieted and only the heated sounds of their captured breath disturbed the silence with a music of their own.

The kiss ended, and her lids drifted open to find piercing eyes the color of roses, watching her under a stormy brow.

"Have you come to kill me or capture me?" she asked again.

"I…I love you," he stammered sheepishly, his cheeks almost the color of his eyes. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides.

She tried weakly to hide a giggle behind her hand, but she saw his face grow an even deeper shade of crimson.

"Then kill me because no man will ever own me," she challenged.

Her breath caught in her throat when a knife seemed to appear in his hand out of thin air.

He knelt at her side and slid the tip of the blade into the keyhole on the shackles that encircled her wrists, attached to a chain that tethered her to the wall.

As the cuffs fell away, he drew her reddened wrists to his lips and soothed them each with a kiss. She watched him curiously as he rose to his feet and turned away. Her brows drew together in confusion as he moved toward the door, his sleek, black ponytail swaying between his shoulder blades. He pulled the heavy door open, the loud creak echoing down the cavernous hallway outside.

"If you go now, there's no one outside to stop you," he said over his shoulder, not turning to look back at her. "But you don't have long before someone comes."

"You're setting me free?" she asked.

"I told you that I love you," he repeated, his back to her. He paused only a moment more before his black frame disappeared silently through the doorway.

She rose to her feet, the first time in far longer than she could remember that she didn't hear the rattle of chains when she moved. She took two steps toward the door, bracing herself for it to swing closed in her face and wake her from this dream. But it stood still, inanimate, asleep, like a drunken jailor dozing.

She crept passed it and stepped over the threshold into the hallway, the air leaving her lungs in one deep breath. She looked at her feet on the stone floor, different from the tiled floor in her cell. She smiled. Then she laughed. Her hand flew to her lips, trembling, and tears filled her eyes. She bit her lip and rushed forward, four quick steps down the hall, but then stopped.

Hesitantly, she turned back, returning to the doorway. Peering in from the outside, she thought how small and lonely the little room looked. Her eyes fell upon the abandoned ehru, left strewn upon the window seat, a pile of cuffs and chains spilling onto the floor beneath it. A strong breeze hummed across the strings, and she remembered the sweet song she had only just learned to play, and the warmth of his fingers and his lips.

Quickly, as though her feet were on fire, she forced herself to return over the threshold. She rushed across the room, panting in shallow breaths, her heart thudding in her chest. Her hands stretched out as far as she could reach to grab the ehru and bow, and she clutched the instrument to her like the precious child she knew she could never have.

Suddenly, screams and shouts echoed up from the garden below through the window that was no longer hers. Her heart leapt up in her throat and she leaned forward to peer down below. A black figure flashed through the garden maze, and wherever it paused, a body crumpled and blood seeped on the ground.

She turned and ran for the door, willing it, daring it, to stay open. With her ehru clutched to her heart, she vowed that no matter what awaited her on the other side, she would never be chained again.


	2. Into the Demon's Lair

As the horse's hooves thundered under her, the princess tightened her grip around the demon hunched in the saddle in front of her. She threw her head back as the wind whipped her hair out behind her in long snapping strands, and a breathless laugh flew away on the cool afternoon air. Twisting in and out among the trees, their horse carried them through a dense, sun-dappled forest, and she yearned for an open field where the sun might burn into her face.

She rested her cheek against the demon's strong back and felt his warmth through his heavy black tunic. Only now did she wonder where he took her. Escaping her prison, she had not hesitated before boldly thrusting her hand into the demon's and being hoisted onto his black stallion's back. At the time, he seemed to be her only means of escape, but perhaps she had only slipped one set of bars for another.

Still, she had to tread carefully. Whatever binding spell had been cast on her still remained and so she was bound to this form and to the earth. Sheltered so long in her prison, she harbored nervous uncertainty in how to best protect and provide for this body. For the time being, she decided, she had little choice but to gamble on this lover-demon's favor until she was strong enough to dispense with him, and at last, be truly free.

She glanced over the demon's black shoulder, but could see no trail ahead, nor any landmarks, and yet he seemed headed in some specific direction. She considered the possibility that he might be leading her to her death, to some remote and dark hollow where he would use her body and then end her life.

_So be it_, she whispered against the whipping wind that stole her words.

Soon, he slowed the horse amidst a particularly dense forest and slid from the saddle while his mount still pranced with unspent energy.

"Hime-sama," he held up a hand to her, peering up at her with those compelling crimson eyes.

She nodded her head hesitantly, slipping her long white fingers across the palm of his rough hand. She turned in the saddle and leaned forward, bracing her hands on his hard shoulders as his hands encircled her waist and lifted her lightly to the ground.

He immediately released her to retrieve her ehru and bow from behind the saddle. Finally, he slapped the horse's rump, sending it off into the surrounding wilderness, encroached with gloom as the afternoon sun set behind the surrounding mountains.

"Please, Hime-sama, this way. A storm is coming," he explained blankly and walked off. He indicated no path, nor any destination except trees and darkness. Curiosity again sent a tingle down her spine, and she walked on just behind him. After a short distance, he stopped at the face of a mountain draped in twisting roots and moss, and drew back a heavy curtain of vines, revealing an opening in the rock. "Please, go in. It's safe."

Hesitantly, breathlessly, she gathered up her gowns to enter the narrow opening, sparing only a brief glance at the intense eyes that followed her as she passed her demon host.

Complete darkness blinded her on the other side of the entrance, so she stopped just inside. In the gloom, she could see nothing, but she felt his chest brush her back as he moved past her and her body tensed at the contact. She shivered, unexpectedly recalling the warmth of his touch and his kiss. A flame flared to her right, illuminating his face as he bent over a compact stone fireplace.

"Please, sit here," he indicated a wide, rough-hewn wooden chair, well padded with various cushions, and placed close to the fire. She stared at him for several awkward moments, not moving. She noticed his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides—apparently a nervous habit of his she'd already discovered in their short acquaintance.

_Amusing boy_, she felt her lips curl slightly at the corners.

"Would you like some tea?" he stammered.

"Tea?" her eyebrows arched up. _What manner of demon offered a lady tea?_

"It's…it's my specialty," he stammered.

"Then by all means," she answered and swept across the room to perch on the indicated chair. More and more, she felt she somehow had the advantage here.

She drew the muddied hem of her gown upward slightly and pushed the toes of her slippers forward toward the fire to dry them. A slight noise drew her attention toward the demon, who remained rooted to his previous spot. He gawked at the glimpse of creamy skin that peeped out between the curve of her slipper's edge and the raised hem of her gown. Abruptly, she tossed her gown over her feet and cleared her throat, raising an accusatory eyebrow at him. Even in the dim light, she could see his cheeks flare in a blush as he turned away.

_Most amusing_, she brushed her fingers over her smiling lips.

She divided her attention between examining the cave and watching him deftly preparing the tea. She momentarily considered that he might poison her, but her confidence grew stronger that her death was not his intent. Still, death took many forms.

To the left of the fireplace stood a makeshift kitchen with a tall barrel of water, a basin, a small table next to the basin, where the demon brewed his special potion, and a cupboard next to that. A narrow table with four chairs took up the center of the room, and suspended above the table, a lantern which had been lit before the tea preparations had begun. Her eyes followed the black figure as he awkwardly moved past her to hang a black pot full of water over the fire in the hearth.

Her curious gaze followed him back to the kitchen and traveled further on around the cave. To the far left of the kitchen, set back in darkness, she made out a raised platform, strewn with layers of furs and roughly made pillows, which she decided must serve for a bed. Traveling further to the left, her eyes picked out various weapons and tools hung on the wall. To her right she found items most curious to her: a plain wooden bookshelf, packed with books and scrolls, and standing next to the bookshelf, a biwa layered in dust. He had placed her ehru and bow next to it.

"You play the biwa?" she asked and turned to find him crouched in front of her, carefully removing the pot from the fire.

"No," he answered, grunting under the strain of the heavy pot.

"Oh? Is there someone else who lives here that plays?" she tipped her head curiously.

"No," he replied, avoiding her eyes as he set the pot on the table.

"May I?" she inquired further, indicating the abandoned instrument.

"It produces no sound," he answered, ladling the hot water into two cups.

"Sad…" she muttered to herself, glancing over the mute and lonely wooden box.

"Hime-sama, the tea is ready," he informed her. She rose from her seat and turned toward the kitchen, surprised to find a minor feast set out on the table.

"My goodness," she smiled, feeling a hunger pang rumble in her stomach. "You're quite a host for a demon."

"Pardon the meager provisions. I don't normally have guests," he explained, standing with his eyes averted until she took her seat.

"May I ask," she began as she lifted the warm stone teacup to her lips, "what your intentions are?" Her eyes flickered up to his as she sipped the warm tea and felt its soothing heat curl over her tongue, a sweet trace of mint appearing as she swallowed.

That is, just before a rush of acrid, bitter tang burned the back of her throat and made her tongue and lips curl back in revulsion. The cup crashed to the table and she grabbed her throat.

"I knew it!" she croaked on strangled breath, as she stumbled to her feet. "Poison!"

"No!" he exclaimed rushing to her side. "It can't be poisoned! I gathered the ingredients and made the tea myself," he assured her, holding her around the shoulders and stroking her back as she coughed and spluttered. "I was very careful to make it perfectly for you."

"You mean it's SUPPOSED to taste like that?" she drew back from him with wide eyes. "Did you taste this?"

"Of course," he frowned nervously. "I drink it every day. It's full of healthful herbs."

"Surely not," she straightened. "No human could ingest that every day. Yours must be different." She pulled out of his arms and rushed to his side of the table. She raised the half-full cup to her nose and detected the mint, and then carefully took a small sip from the cup. She grimaced and grunted as the same taste offended her tongue. "You _are_ a demon!"

He colored up to his eyebrows and his fists clenched at his sides. "Don't drink it if you don't like it," he snapped, obviously hurt.

"Ha! I'll never drink this vile stuff again as long as I live!" she replied. "Does any of this taste normal?" she indicated the food on the table.

"Of…of course it does!" he stammered back at her.

"Do you have any sake? Real sake…not anything _you_ made," she demanded. His eyes flashed red, and he stormed to the cupboard and withdrew a sake bottle and slammed it on the table.

He paused as though to speak, villainy in his eyes, but instead grunted and brushed past her to the cave entrance, which revealed that a steady drizzle had already begun. In a moment, he was gone.

"Good riddance," she called after him, uncorked the sake and drank straight from the bottle. "Who needs you anyway…"


	3. Courting a Demon

Unlike the tea, the sake was perfection, so the princess bravely dug into the bread, cheese and oranges laid out on the table for her. In no time at all, her appetite was satisfied, the memory of the repulsive tea had faded somewhat, and she felt a bit more charitable. As her demon host had still not returned, she pulled up her sleeves and tidied up the kitchen the best she could, sheepishly hiding the plates she'd broken in the process.

"Serves him right for leaving his guest to clean up," she justified away her awkward pang of guilt. She carried the last of the offensive tea to the cave entrance and poured it out on the ground with deep satisfaction.

She peered around at the deluge of rain saturating the ground and felt a nervous gnawing sensation in her stomach. She couldn't imagine where the demon might have gone in such a storm. Had he abandoned her there? Ah, love was indeed fleeting, she decided with a smirk.

Perhaps she had been a bit rude, she ventured and chewed her lip. She had been told by every one of her captors that she had a tongue like an adder and was twice as poisonous. She had been proud of that trait until this moment. Honestly, what sort of demon got his feelings hurt?

He amused her endlessly, so it would be a shame if he did not return. He was a most curious fellow. He had rough hands, but soft lips. He produced beautiful music, but killed for money. He had freed her, but expected nothing. At least until now. She wondered if he'd meant to bed her tonight. _Ha, let him try!_ she thought and raised an eyebrow sternly. Her lips tingled at the memory of his kiss, soft, hot, liquid fire, stirring a simmering heat deep in her body. _Let him try… _

Thunder crackled overhead and she saw lightning flash across the sky, more pronounced now that night had fallen. Torrents of rain pummeled the ground and shook the leaves of the trees surrounding the cave. As she turned back inside, she noticed a black form stir in the tree just outside. She squinted and studied the trunk of the tree where she'd seen the movement and then her gaze was drawn upward. A leg clad in a black boot dangled, kicking back and forth, from a thick branch overhead. Drops of rain coursed down the side of the boot and dripped from the sole. He must be soaked, she surmised and frowned curiously.

"Demon-san," she called up to him above the din of the rain. "Do you hang upside down from the trees at night?"

He didn't answer. She couldn't help baiting him since she wasn't tired enough to sleep and he was infinitely entertaining. If he killed her as a result of her mischief, so much the better, as she would be free all the sooner.

"You know, if you hang upside down in a rainstorm, you might drown," she informed him in her most solicitous voice. She smiled broadly, giggling to herself and listened for his angry response, but none came.

_Stubborn,_ she thought with a determined set of her mouth.

"Demon-san," she called again sweetly, "perhaps you grow fur and fangs in the moonlight, and are ashamed for me to see." Still, no answer. She set her hands on her hips. "I don't mind, you know, as long as you don't have fleas."

She decided he must be quite angry with her and far too full of pride for his own good, since he preferred to soak in a rainstorm than allow a truce. She decided to try a new tactic to lure him down out of the rain. She dragged one of the kitchen chairs to the cave's entrance and sat down, placing her ehru across her lap, resting it against her shoulder.

She positioned her fingers on the strings as he had taught her earlier in her prison cell, and she drew the bow, lightly, deftly, across the strings. She stumbled through the melody, trying to recall the correct placement of her fingers and the way his fingertips had brushed over hers, guiding her. Little by little, as she remembered his gentle touch, pressing here, pulling back there, nudging his fingers against hers in a delicate dance, their love song grew in strength and beauty, slipping fluidly through the steady patter of rain, the music echoing in every raindrop.

She hadn't realized her eyes were closed until she felt cold, wet fingertips touch her cheek. Her eyes opened on the sight of her dark host standing before her, drenched to the bone, droplets of rain falling from strands of his hair and splattering on her lap. The lantern light fell across his face and even in such a dim glow, her breath caught in her lungs at the ruggedly handsome face before her. She watched rivulets of rain slip down his cheek, along the muscled column of his neck, and disappear into the soaking black cowl below his chin.

She swallowed the breath that stalled at her lips and rose from her chair, her silent instrument clutched in her tense fingers.

"Come inside, Demon-san," she leaned toward him and said softly against his cheek. "I'll dry your hair."

The ehru hit the ground with a twang, followed by the clatter of the bow bouncing against it, snapping two of the taut strings. His mouth seized hers in a predatory kiss, pinning her against the arching curve of the cave entrance. Her fingers gripped the cold, wet cloth across his chest, twining her fists in the rough fabric. She whimpered when he caught her bottom lip in his teeth and suckled it between his lips, drawing her heated blood into its reddened fullness. Heat spiraled upward along her spine when he surrendered her mouth only to assault her ivory throat with his ravenous bite.

"Mine," he growled against her prickling skin and flicked his tongue against the spot that had already begun to bruise, branding her as his prey. The word cut through her more sharply than the lightning rending the trees of the forest, and she summoned all her strength to shove him off her, thrusting him roughly against the opposite wall.

"No man owns me," she glared at him. "No man. Ever."

He scowled and moved toward her, which gave her just enough of a chance to run out into the rain and escape into the cold and furious night. Yet, instead, she backed deeper into the cave, her chest heaving under the yellow lantern light. Her warm, brown eyes met the red glare that moved closer out of the darkened entryway. She darted behind the table, putting solid objects between them.

"See what you've done, Demon-san," she accused in a husky voice, a smirk dancing at the corner of her kiss-bruised lips, her eyes riveted to his as he came closer.

"You've soiled my pretty gown. I think it's ruined. See here." She caressed the silken ribbon that bordered the collar of her gown, her fingers lingering against the mark he'd made on her white skin. As she spoke, she backed a half-step for every step he approached. The gap between them closed with each second.

"And here," she brushed her fingers across the fabric stretched tight across her left breast, a rounded nub stirring to life under the silken gown where her fingers caressed. She saw his Adam's apple bob as he shoved a chair out of his way and it clattered to the floor. She blinked and her eyes flashed a little at his sudden violence. A slow smile snaked across her lips.

"How will you take responsibility, Demon-san?" she challenged him, backing into the kitchen basin and bracing her hands behind her as he moved close enough for her to see the firelight reflected in his crimson eyes.

Fiery need seared her from the inside out, tightening every muscle in her body as she waited for, longed for, and simpered for the punishing onslaught of his mouth and hands. She desired it so, expected it so, that she trembled in anticipation as he moved so close to her she could feel the heat from his body through his wet clothes.

Then, as he bent to her, she saw a soft smile curving his lips, and her eyes widened in surprise. So shocked, so unexpectedly moved was she by the kind and loving smile upon the demon's lips that her heart fluttered in her chest, a feeling she had never known before. Her impervious defenses, hard, sharp, unyielding, dissolved when his gentle, reverent kiss pressed to the translucent ribbon that bordered her robes. The soft heat of his tender mouth and warm breath penetrated the thin fabric to her skin, setting off waves of delicious liquid fire lapping at her senses.

"De- Demon…san," she whimpered and felt herself falling into him only to be caught in steel arms against an iron chest. Pulsating surges of light and heat cascaded over her from the deepest center of her being and she gave herself up to its mastery of her. Slowly, immeasurably, achingly, she became aware of the calming sweep of his lips across her cheek, his warm soothing breath sighing on her electrified skin.

"Shouka," he whispered against her trembling mouth. "My name is Shouka."


End file.
